The invention relates to litter boxes and, more particularly, to a litter box system having an absorbent sheet and filtering system for separating animal waste, both liquid and solid from the litter.
Litter boxes are commonly used to contain a granular material, such as litter, for absorbing and deodorizing animal waste, such as the solid and liquid waste of a household cat. Cleaning of the litter box can be an unpleasant task for the pet's owner. Either the entire contents of the litter box can be disposed of, which requires new litter to be replaced in the litter box and increases the expense to care for the pet, or the contents of the litter box may be sifted through, such as with a scoop, to separate the animal waste from the re-usable litter.
A litter box is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,300 issued Oct. 7, 1986 to McDonough and entitled "Litter Box Liner". A liner is positioned within the litter box and is filled with litter. The liner has a bottom wall with a plurality of openings which are large enough to pass litter through but small enough to block animal excrement. The liner also includes an imperforate flap, including a deodorizing agent, attached beneath the bottom wall. To separate the waste from the litter, the liner is pulled upward allowing the litter to pass through the openings as the flap drops down. However, after removal of the liner, the flap containing the pet's urine is positioned outside of the liner, possibly contacting the pet's owner during the cleaning process. Also, the pet may claw at the liner, possibly altering the positioning of the liner, and may puncture the liner and flap, decreasing the effectiveness of the litter box. The liquid waste in combination with the litter may form clumps, reducing the filtering ability of the liner and causing the flap to stick to the liner, preventing the flap from dropping to filter the litter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,578 issued Jul. 16, 1991 to Hammons et al. and entitled "Pet Litter Box System Which Prevents the Development of Unpleasant Odors" discloses a litter box system having a plurality of filtering members and protective members including liquid sorbent means. However, as discussed hereinabove, the liquid waste in combination with the litter may form clumps and stick to the filtering member, reducing the filtering ability of the litter box system.
Another litter box is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,822 issued Apr. 20, 1982 to Miller and entitled "Pet Litter Separator". The litter box includes a pair of receptacles and a screen member. After an animal deposits waste into one of the receptacles, the screen member is positioned between the pair of receptacles, the receptacles are inverted, filtering the litter into one of the receptacles, while retaining the animal waste in the other receptacle. However, the litter box does not provide for reducing the odor due to the animal's liquid waste, which is often deposited on the bottom of the litter box.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for disposal of animal waste which utilizes a container including an absorbent member and a filtering member for easily and sanitarily separating animal waste contained in the litter box.